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long before we will be found denying the spotless and sinless life that lay between these two miraculous events. A sinless life and personality such.as'that o f Jesus Christ is a miracle indeed, and according to the present status o f scientific thought as defined by some modern scholars, is an absolute impossibility in the moral realm. If, according to the modern scientific mind, everything that is supernatural must be ruled out o f the life o f Christ and the ■Gospels, we must, to be consistent, rule out, not merely the virgin birth and the resur rection, but also the perfect, sinless life o f Jesus. 1. Its Fundamental Place in the Gospel (xv. 1-19). A careful study o f 1 Corinthians xv -shows us the important place the resurrec tion o f Christ holds in the Christian sys tem in the opinion o f the Apostle Paul. “And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and, your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ; whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not^ Christ raised: And if Christ be not raise'd, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the -dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead? And why stand we in jeopardy every hour? I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. I die daily. I f after the manner o f men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? Let us eat and drink; far to-morrow we die.” I f Christ be not risen, then we have no gospel. Take away from Paul’s gospel the fact that Christ rose from the dead, and you have taken the very heart and core •out o f his message; then the gospel is nothing but a painted story, a concocted tale. Then the words of the preacher are •empty words, the hopes he has aroused are
idle dreams. His message is a sham, a delusion, a tissue o f falsehoods, an empty phantom, and a worthless fiction. Instead o f being the proclamation o f truth, it is the dissemination o f a lie. I f Christ be not risen, then the gospel has no reality; our message is a vain, worthless, empty sham; 'in reality we have no gospel to preach. If Christ be not risen from the dead, it may be questioned whether we have a God who is really worthy o f our confidence and trust. There are some who say that even though we do not believe in the resurrec tion o f Jesus Christ, ,we nevertheless have a God in whom we can trust and believe. But have we ? Do you think that .God would leave One so spotless, so pure as Christ, covered with shame, defamed, to remain under the stigma o f an imposter and traitor, which would be the case if He did not raise Christ from the dead? Then what hope have we? What is the use o f trying to be good, if the end o f it all is a skull and some ashes? Think o f the suf ferings and death o f the innocent, sinless Christ. Now, if there were no resurrec tion o f that spotless life, then God is either dead or mad. “The spirit o f holiness” of which Paul speaks (Romans i. 4), the power and force o f the sinlessness o f His life, made it impossible that He should remain under death’s power. This is what Peter means (Acts ii. 22, 23) when, after recounting the spotless life o f Christ, he says, “ It was not possible that (such a one ‘ as) he (Christ) should be holden o f it (death).” The apostle further says, “ I f Christ be not risen . . . then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” Oh, those beautiful w ords: “ Fallen asleep in Christ”—kissed to sleep, as it were, by Christ 1 I f Christ be not risen, then that loved one whom you laid aside in hope o f a glorious resurrection; that dear father ■vvho all through life had surrendered to the living Christ; that precious mother who pillowed her head on the promises o f Jesus Christ; that beloved daughter whose form you put away in the hope o f the resurrec-
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